Balancing SEO Against The Needs of Your Article's Audience

Article marketing continues to be a proven method for generating traffic to our websites and developing good search placement, even after all of these years. I have been reading articles online since 1995, and I continue to read a few dozen articles per week on subjects that are dear to my heart.

Some Claim That Article Marketing Does Not Work

Now and again, I will read a thread in a forum somewhere where somebody claims that article marketing does not work.

Some article-marketing critics will admit that they have only distributed only one or two articles. Well yeah, I can see why article marketing did not work for them - because they did not work at making article marketing profitable for them.

Article marketing is like any other method of advertising. If you don't make a real investment in it, then you cannot reap great rewards from it.

The Marketing Rule Of Seven

Advertising professionals speak of the "Marketing Rule Of Seven," which suggests that a consumer must see your marketing message at least seven times before they start to pay attention to your message. The pros also suggest that once seven exposures have been achieved, the consumer will make a subtle, subconscious connection to the advertiser. Recognition brings rewards, in that after seven exposures to an advertisement, consumers will start to feel as if they know enough about the advertiser to trust their sales message.

If television, radio and print advertisers understand that a company's sales message must be seen or heard at least seven times, then why would you - the Internet marketer - think that you can write a single article and see the full benefit of the medium?

Successful Article Marketing Requires A Commitment To The Reader

All commerce on the Internet is driven by information, such as written sales messages and information about products and services. Some websites also benefit from generic information concerning topics that their potential clients will be interested in reading. For example, if a website sells plumbing supplies, the consumer may find the availability of information about how to remove the old fittings and how to install the new plumbing equipment, as an essential element of their purchase decision.

Article marketing when done correctly will not be a boring, blathering of search engine optimized keywords related to a product or service line.

Article marketing, when done well, will provide information that will be of real interest to the person most likely to buy what you are selling.

For example:

If you are selling auction services, give the reader tips to help them make more money from the sale of their goods in the auction environment or how a buyer can find a good deal.

If you are selling auto warranties, tell the reader how to uncover the best value in an auto warranty plan and what features to seek.

If you are selling resume services, give the reader advice on how to write their own resume.

Article marketing when used well can help a company establish itself as an expert in the field, and it can help show a reader why hiring the author's service might be better than a do-it-yourself project. As an example, with the resume advice article, once the reader sees how comprehensive your knowledge is and how detailed a resume should be, the reader may just decide that using your resume writing service will be much more productive than the do-it-yourself resume.

Just Like Lawyers, Writers Specialize Too

Beyond the cost of labor, content development is usually the second most expensive expenditure made by the online vendor. It is important to note that just as there are lawyers who specialize in one area of law, there are also ghostwriters who specialize in certain types of content creation.

People who write sales copy are referred to as "copywriters." Copywriters are people who understand the nuances of how to make people buy what you are selling.

They understand that replacing a single word in the sales copy could mean the difference between lukewarm sales numbers and red-hot sales numbers, and they know which words to change.

Some professional copywriters have a proven track record of writing sales copy that has generated millions of dollars in sales - people such as Frank Kern, Dan Lok, and Joe Vitale. These guys know the value of their copywriting skills, and they charge accordingly. If you ask them to write sales copy for you, don't be surprised when they quote you a price in the range of $5-20 per written word.

Other writers might specialize in writing books, brochures, and articles. Some writers specialize in the smaller word counts, like the folks who write greeting cards and book jackets.

Finding The Best Writer For Your Needs

The kid down the street who writes part-time for the newspaper may or may not be the best person to write your online articles for you. One reason is that people who write for offline publications seldom appreciate the importance of keywords in an article for search engine marketing purposes.

Note this article for example. Our purpose is to show you how you can use article marketing as a successful marketing tool for your business. We also want to show how the articles should appeal both to the reader and the search engine algorithms.

With these thoughts in mind, when you are finished reading this article, read it a second time to see how many variations on the following SEO keyword phrases can be found in this article: article marketing, search engine marketing, keywords, advertising, content creation, writers and copywriting. Of course, copywriting is not the kind of writing we do, but people who do not understand the specialization of writing skills might type "copywriting" or "copywriters" into their favorite search engine to find someone who writes informational articles.

One never knows precisely what the public will use as their search keywords when they go to the search engine to find information. That is the very reason why a good online article writer must strive to showcase a range of similar keywords within the context of an article.

Your Article Marketing Strategies Influence Your Overall Success

We know that some people tell you that the only reason to write an article is to get a link back to your website. What most of these people don't tell you is that most websites that accept reprint articles do so, only after a human has reviewed or at least scanned the article.

An article that does not read well will never be published on a top-tier website. Yes, some websites may accept a poorly written article, but more sites will only accept well-written articles.

A reader who is not impressed with your article will seldom reach your resource box, so the link back in the resource box can only give value to your website from the search engines - maybe. The search engines generally only give value to articles on good websites or those placements that have lots of links pointing to the article within the website. Bad articles don't get published on good websites, and they do not attract links.

As the Marketing Rule Of Seven should indicate, multiple articles generate a long-term wave of new links and potential visitors to your website.

Consistency is also important to a successful article marketing campaign, in that releasing weekly articles will enable your readers to see your marketing message regularly.

Finally, the smart use of a variety of related keyword phrases will strengthen the ability of your article to appeal to the search engines and the people who use them.

If you can balance the needs of your article's audience against your need for search optimized content, then you can benefit handsomely from your article marketing campaigns.

Hunter Waterhouse has been ghostwriting and building websites
since 1999. He is ready, willing, and able to put his experience to work for Main Street Businesses that seek to generate walk-in traffic to their stores, from the online exposure of their business. To learn more about how Hunter can help your offline business, review his Local Online Marketing programs at http://onlinemarketinglocal.com/local-services/

10 Most Recent Articles Written by Hunter Waterhouse

Never Underestimate The Real Power Of Long-Tail Keywords
Written by: Hunter Waterhouse |
Distributed: 2010-06-23 |
Word Count: 1374 |
Page Views: 3530
| Votes: 5 |
Rating: 1.40
The Mayday Update was primarily focused on changing how
Long-Tail Search Queries were handled by Google... In this
article, I discuss what Mayday changed, and how to optimize
for the new Google...

Article Marketing Advice: Increasing the Readability of Your Articles
Written by: Hunter Waterhouse |
Distributed: 2009-11-17 |
Word Count: 1054 |
Page Views: 2999
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 3.17
When it comes to writing articles to promote your online
business, it's important to consider more than just your
marketing goals: it's essential that you also focus on writing
articles that people will want to read. In other words, you
don't just want to use words; and you don't want to market and
sell your business directly. Instead, you want to make an effort
to be engaging and influential.

Developing Original Articles: The Human Touch vs. Computer Software
Written by: Hunter Waterhouse |
Distributed: 2009-11-12 |
Word Count: 735 |
Page Views: 3995
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.09
With the increasing demand of high quality content on the web,
finding original articles and carefully stylized content is a
priority for companies to retain credibility. With today's
fierce search engine ranking competition, a steady supply of
original articles has become a necessity. Websites need to be
designed to increase traffic, and sites updated regularly with
fresh information are more likely to receive higher search engine
placement than those updated less frequently. As a result,
companies need to find sources of new and original content as
often as possible.

Most Recent "Business Online" Articles

Four Tips For Creating An Effective Authors' Resource Box
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-08-27 |
Word Count: 1669 |
Page Views: 5255
| Votes: 9 |
Rating: 2.11
In article marketing, there are many factors that will
affect your articles' ability to promote your website in
the most effective manner. In this article, we will briefly
discuss a couple those factors, before we dive into how to
create an effective Authors' Resource Box, also known as
the About The Author Information.

Website Traffic Generation: Winning the Love of the Traffic Fairy
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-08-24 |
Word Count: 1149 |
Page Views: 5948
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 1.57
Some people still believe that all they have to do is build
a website and customers will magically appear on their
site... Once they have built their websites, they wait
anxiously for the "Traffic Fairy" to come and sprinkle its
magic dust on their website too, so that they can make lots
of money like other success website owners.

Top 10 Reasons Why Online Marketers Fail With Article Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-31 |
Word Count: 1025 |
Page Views: 4972
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 2.29
If you've been marketing products online for any length of
time, you've likely heard people talk about the power and
promise of article marketing for the promotion of your
online business. Unfortunately, many online marketers have
tried to utilize article marketing to benefit their online
business and failed. In this article, I document the top ten
reasons why people fail to find success with article
marketing... And how to fix your article marketing
campaigns...

Article Marketing Tip: Stop Trying To Sell From Within Your Articles
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-30 |
Word Count: 1229 |
Page Views: 3302
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 0.50
The basic premise of article marketing is to present people
information that will be important to them, then at the end
of the article, present information "about the author" and
offer to the reader a means to see how the author can help
the reader further. When done well, article marketing
continues to be one of the most effective methods of
promotion that one could employ online.

The Six Degrees of Internet Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-30 |
Word Count: 991 |
Page Views: 5695
| Votes: 8 |
Rating: 2.25
The theory behind the Six Degrees of Separation is that all
people on earth can be connected together in as little as
six steps. Now, I know what you might be thinking at this
juncture... That sounds fun and interesting, but what does
that have to do with Internet Marketing? That is a great
question that I am going to answer for you in this
article...

How To Win More Eyeballs for Your Offers and Websites
Written by: Bruce Lansing |
Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1373 |
Page Views: 3354
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 0.25
Most people using search engines on the Internet are looking
for answers to questions and solutions to problems. If you
can give people what the answers they want, you will be able
to position your business as one worth hiring today or
tomorrow.

How To Increase Your Rates and Earnings As a Freelance Writer
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1191 |
Page Views: 3394
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 0.25
Freelance writers fill a very important role in today's
business marketplace. They create the on-demand, customized
content that business owners everywhere need to push their
businesses forward. In this article, the author explains
what freelance writers should do to ensure that employers
will pay them well for their services.

Promoting Your Business With Content:: Defining Your Writing Strategy
Written by: Bruce Lansing |
Distributed: 2013-07-25 |
Word Count: 677 |
Page Views: 3115
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 1.50
Many people suggest that you should write articles on the
basis of the benefits that people will get from reading your
articles. I'd like to suggest that there is a better
reason, and that is to write your articles on the basis of
what problem people will be able to solve, as a result of
reading your articles.

Most Viewed "Business Online" Articles

Attracting Readers to your Book
Written by: Alastair Hall |
Distributed: 2006-05-18 |
Word Count: 708 |
Page Views: 45495
| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 1.90
One of the common and obvious ways to market a self-published
book is having your own website. The harder part is how to
attract your target audience and then convert the sale.

How To Make Visitors Bookmark Your Site
Written by: Cheryl Miller |
Distributed: 2006-10-10 |
Word Count: 536 |
Page Views: 37855
| Votes: 14 |
Rating: 2.21
When visitors bookmark your site it is a sign that you have built
a great website and are pleasing them. Visitors think highly
enough of your site to want to return and possibly tell others
about it. You are not only increasing traffic from your existing
clientele you are encouraging new traffic by means of viral
marketing.

Successful Article Marketers Help Readers Solve Problems
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-24 |
Word Count: 816 |
Page Views: 23478
| Votes: 27 |
Rating: 2.93
Every week, I have the opportunity to speak with people about the
benefits and challenges of using article marketing to promote an
online business. Article marketing is about getting your sales
message in front of potential customers and to get links to your
website. Many interpret this to mean that an article should
directly promote a website within the article, but that approach
is wrong and will reduce one's success using this methodology.

Tips For Building Your First Website
Written by: Benny Tsabba |
Distributed: 2007-05-30 |
Word Count: 1511 |
Page Views: 18583
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.09
New people are coming online everyday. And many of those people
desire to turn their spare time into spare cash. So begins their
journey.

The Importance Of Effective Follow-up
Written by: Kate Smalley |
Distributed: 2007-01-15 |
Word Count: 493 |
Page Views: 13261
| Votes: 21 |
Rating: 2.62
Marketing experts say that following up with clients is crucial
to successful selling because most prospects do not buy the first
time, according to Aweber, a leading autoresponder company.
People must encounter a marketing message multiple times before
making a purchasing decision.

Today's Google Bots and What They Do
Written by: Kim Roach |
Distributed: 2006-08-02 |
Word Count: 1061 |
Page Views: 12992
| Votes: 9 |
Rating: 2.89
Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However,
before these pages were placed in the index, they were each
crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot. This article will attempt to
reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function,
and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the
well-known GoogleBot.

Successful Forum JVs and How To Get Them
Written by: Diana Barnum |
Distributed: 2006-06-15 |
Word Count: 648 |
Page Views: 10250
| Votes: 12 |
Rating: 2.00
The forming of common alliances, also referred to as a joint
venture (JV), happens nearly every day in the business world.
One of the most popular means of linking people up online of so
that they can work together on their projects is via forums,
where people of all levels of business and expertise post in
common threads.

Ten Tips For User Friendly Online Registration Forms
Written by: Jim Romanik |
Distributed: 2009-02-24 |
Word Count: 775 |
Page Views: 9993
| Votes: 14 |
Rating: 0.93
Have you ever registered or attempted to register for an event
and spent half an hour trying to figure out what you needed to
do? Or have you used an online registration form that lost your
data or was so complicated that it seemed like more work than
faxing the form?

How To Use Your Race To Get Rich
Written by: Herbert Harris |
Distributed: 2009-07-07 |
Word Count: 1407 |
Page Views: 4858
| Votes: 41 |
Rating: 3.95
Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing
and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other
racial groups, it is easy to be distracted and overwhelmed by the
raw data. However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered
by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned
lies, and statistics!"

How to Keep Your Article Content Fresh and Interesting
Written by: Craig Ritsema |
Distributed: 2006-08-29 |
Word Count: 699 |
Page Views: 4355
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 3.94
Webmasters everywhere are constantly on the lookout for fresh and
interesting content for their website. Along with these content
qualities is the requirement that it be unique. Everyone wants
their website to stand out above the others in the search engine
results. So what is the trick for you to keep a steady supply of
this quality content coming your way?

The Most Important Ingredient for Info Product Success (is You)
Written by: Judy Murdoch |
Distributed: 2008-04-15 |
Word Count: 981 |
Page Views: 4586
| Votes: 14 |
Rating: 3.64
Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I
help small business owners create information products. The other
person was very friendly until I said "information products."
Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees

Increasing Productivity In Your Online Business
Written by: Willie Crawford |
Distributed: 2006-06-14 |
Word Count: 1407 |
Page Views: 5883
| Votes: 33 |
Rating: 3.61
Running an online "empire" of approximately 1600 websites and
blogs, selling a variety of products, services and ideas, I
have to be much more productive than the average person in a
"regular job."

3 Amazing but little known Secrets to make your Website Blast to the top of Search Engines!
Written by: Jim Corkern |
Distributed: 2006-10-25 |
Word Count: 646 |
Page Views: 2732
| Votes: 15 |
Rating: 3.53
I know you hear all of the squabble about links being the number
1 factor in getting your website top search engine positions. I
have had many clients come to me and say, I have hundreds more
links than the top 10 sites for the keywords I am targeting, and
all of my links are from related sites, Why is my site not in the
top 10?